Jurassic World Rebirth Is Borrowing From This 2017 Monsterverse Movie (& It's Smart)

The first trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth recently dropped, and it shares some noticeable similarities to a 2017 movie from the Monsterverse franchise – and it's a smart direction for the Jurassic franchise to take. After the previous Jurassic World trilogy delivered big at the box office, but told a lackluster story, it was a surprise to see a brand-new Jurassic World 4 movie greenlit with plans for it to be the first in a new trilogy, bringing back Godzilla's Gareth Edwards to direct.

The first Jurassic World Rebirth trailer has already gone a long way toward assuaging fears that the new trilogy would be more of the same. The new movie, set five years after Jurassic World Dominion, follows a small expedition as they travel to an island new for Jurassic World Rebirth to extract DNA from three massive dinosaurs. Audiences may have noticed the new Jurassic World Rebirth trailer shares a few spiritual similarities with another franchise, a positive sign of its potential.

Jurassic World Rebirth Shares Several Elements With Kong: Skull Island

They Have A Similar Vibe

From the jump, the general story, characters, and island setting shown in Jurassic World Rebirth's trailer are reminiscent of similar ones in the King Kong movie Kong: Skull Island. The 2017 movie follows Bill Randa, the head of Monarch, who recruits a team of scientists, soldiers, and one tracker and special ops expert to travel to the newly discovered titular island to conduct tests, whereupon they discover the island is inhabited by giant animals and deadly monsters. It's a similar setup to Jurassic World Rebirth, which sees a scientist, accompanied by tracker bodyguards, traveling to an island specifically known for huge dinosaurs.

Of course, the jungle island setting also helps both movies share a similar vibe, as does the fact the humans end up having to fight unnaturally large specimens of the animals they're targeting in a mysterious bit of the world where nature has gone completely awry. Though the man vs. primal nature story is hardly a new one for either the Jurassic or Monsterverse franchises, it's the central pillar of Kong: Skull Island in a way the other Monsterverse movies aren't, and now, seemingly, Jurassic World Rebirth.

Kong: Skull Island Proves It's A Smart Approach For The New Jurassic World Trilogy

Jurassic World Rebirth Can Salvage The Previous Trilogy & Tell A Better Story

If Jurassic World Rebirth is borrowing a page from Skull Island, it can only be a good thing. Skull Island isn't the highest-rated of the five Monsterverse movies so far, but it's up there. Aside from 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, Skull Island is the best-rated movie thatis also the most well-balanced between critics' and audience scores. The highest critics score for the franchise is 76%, a rating shared by Skull Island and two other movies. And while three other movies have higher audience ratings, two of those three – save, again, for Godzilla vs. Kong – have poor to bad critical ratings.

Monsterverse Movie	RT Critic Score	RT Audience Score
Godzilla (2014)	76%	66%
Kong: Skull Island (2017)	76%	70%
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)	42%	83%
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)	76%	91%
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)	54%	90%

If Jurassic World Rebirth can capture the charm and nicely balanced elements of Kong: Skull Island, it could be something special in the Jurassic franchise. Right now, it has a few things going for it, namely Jurassic World Rebirth's cast of fan-favorite actors, including rapidly rising star Jonathan Bailey, Scarlett Johanssen, and Mahershala Ali. It also has the collective goodwill of the brand of the Jurassic franchise; while the previous Jurassic World trilogy didn't exactly light the world on fire critically, it still did huge numbers at the box office. Right now, it looks like Jurassic World Rebirth could do something the previous trilogy couldn't: offer up a great story that lands with critics and audiences alike.